“I did not see you volunteering to go in my stead. To have to endure that creature’s touch, and bear his whelps…I did not even have his death to look forward to, for once he was gone, I would be bred with another, and another, for the length of my life…”
“You agreed.”
“Had I any choice? I know my duty as well as you, but when they arrived at our father’s court to bargain for the contract and I saw them—coarse and hairy and loathsome, when I thought of that so-called prince’s hands on my body…I could not bear it.” She shuddered. “I was desperate, do you not understand? Father knew. Why else do you think he contracted for The Protector to travel with my court? Not for my protection, but to see I arrived at journey’s end to fulfill that bedamned contract. The only way I could see to get out
